Yves Saint Laurent (designer)

Yves Saint Laurent's retrospective farewell, Centre Pompidou, Paris, January 22, 2002 The most complete career summary on this list. Instead of a new season, the show walked through forty years of his work on the most famous models of the moment, while a crowd in the square outside watched on a giant screen. It ended where his legacy lives: a closing run of tuxedos, his signature piece, with Saint Laurent taking his bow beside Catherine Deneuve and Laetitia Casta. If you watch only one farewell show, this is the one that explains why the rest of the list matters.